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Military History

Military History

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Military History Web Sites

Military Theory, Theorists, and Strategy
This links site from Air University of the US Air Force provides a good breath of information for anyone interesting in learning more about the history of military theory and strategy and the key theorists behind it. For each topic, such as Strategy Models and Criticisms; Irregular Warfare; and Coercion Theory, many links are provided to both online resources and textual resources. This site provides a great database for a large array of information on specific items in Military History.

Strategic Studies Institute United States Army War College
The Strategic Studies institute contains information on current military issues divided into Regional Issues and Strategic Issues. Regional Issues are presented as articles organized by global region. For example, the Middle East and North Africa section contains articles discussing the regional effects of the Iraq War and Hamas, while the Asia Pacific section contains articles on the escalating tension in Korea. The Strategic Issues section contains articles concerning contemporary strategic concerns such as the Global War on Terrorism and Homeland Security. This site is recommended for those looking for information regarding current military conflicts and strategies.

Library of Congress: American Memory – War, Military Collections
The Library of Congress provides a great source for primary source material for American military history. Items that can be found here include an electronic version of The Stars and Stripes, The American Soldiers’ Newspaper of World War I; extensive maps from both sides of the Civil war; and Ansel Adams photographs of Japanese-American interment camps. Like other Library of Congress resources, this is website is a great destination for those seeking primary source materials about American military periods. Clicking on the Browse button at the top of the page provides an easy way to navigate though the different resources.

About.com: Military History
This About.com site is extremely well organized and easy to navigate. From the homepage you can select an individual topic such as Naval Warfare, Strategies and Tactics, or Current Conflicts. This site has extensive information both on the main wars such as World War II and on less-known conflicts such as the 1969 Football War between El Salvador and Honduras. Overall, this site is a great starting point for researching Military History.

The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
While not specifically targeted to Military History, the Avalon Project website contains digitized versions of every significant document in law, history, and diplomacy since 4000 BCE. This site is a recommended destination for anyone searching for the specific wording of any military treaty or document.

Military History Online
This broad-based site offers a range of extended range of member articles on military history. It also offers a Civil War Genealogy Database and community forums. Several links to member articles were broken.

Military History 503
This site is the digitized form of the Military History magazine. As such, it contains numerous well-written and insightful articles about specific topics in any point in military history, from Ancient Greece and Rome to the Present Day. While there is a substantial number of articles, the site is hard to navigate as you cannot browse by topic, although there is a search function. This is a good site to check out if you know exactly what you need.

National Army Museum
The British National Army Museum online offerings include a collection of records and images. Online exhibitions include The Western Front, 1918 and Helmands: an online exhibition in support of the NAM’s gallery- Helmand: The Soldiers’ Story.

The Society for Military History
The Society is devoted to stimulating and advancing the study of military history and offers an extensive set of links to military history sites. The Back issues of the Journal of Military History, the quarterly journal of the Society for Military History, are available through JSTOR. Site design, and some content, outdated.

Air Force Historical Research Agency
This document repository administered by the Air Force Historical Research Agency contains over 500,000 documents relating to the history of the United States Air Force throughout the 20th century. While there is a great deal of information available here, it’s largely specific and technical in nature. Browsing functionality and organization is limited; most navigation is conducted through a search feature. Storage of many of the documents as PDF files also limits casual browsing. A ‘photos’ section is one of the more accessible and helpful parts of the site.

OnWar.com
This site explores both major and minor wars around the globe from 1800 to 1999. Includes review essays, timelines, and chronologies of armed conflict. Major sections include WWII, Weapons of War, and Articles of War. Obtrusive ads on home page.

Military History Timeline
Th War Scholar provides “A Military History Timeline of War and Conflict Across the Globe 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1999.” organized around four major periods — Ancient World, Classical World, Middle Ages, Modern — the color-coded timeline provides the ability to identify major conflicts across the globe in any given year or time period. A simple and clear reference.

Junior General
This site, aimed at middle school students, attempts to illustrate military history through the use of tabletop simulations of historical battles. Ranging in time from ancient Egypt to the Vietnam war, these simulations will be applicable to many history classes. These complex simulations will require considerable amounts of class time, as well as preparation time by the instructor. However, they have the potential to create a unique and engaging experience.